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An Unholy Alliance in East Africa

John Kerry knows Ethiopia is repressive. So why does Washington keep shoring it up?

By BRONWYN BRUTON

May 04, 2014

That anti-terror proclamation has been used to arrest scores of peaceful Muslim demonstrators. Just two days before Kerry’s arrival in Addis Ababa, nine prominent journalists and bloggers were arrested in Ethiopia, apparently for the crime of collaborating with foreign human rights groups; they are being held incommunicado. An uncounted number of other journalists and political activists are already in jail. In March, seven female marathon runners were arrested simply for shouting their support of those incarcerated by the regime. Not to mention that Ethiopia has also been accused of mass human rights violations in its eastern Ogaden region, of using torture in its prisons and of withholding food and humanitarian relief from opposition supporters. This repression has been extraordinarily effective: During the country’s 2012 elections, the ruling party won 546 out of 547 seats in the federal parliament.

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But that same year, Ethiopia was among the top 10 recipients of U.S. foreign aid, receiving $580 million in development, humanitarian relief and health programs. (In 2013, Ethiopia fell off of the top 10 list, thanks to a $200 million cut to AIDS programsand other health funding; Kerry devoted part of his time in Ethiopia to praising what remains of those programs.) Washington’s massive underwriting of the Ethiopian state’s budget has kept the government afloat for years. Foreign donations account for at least 50 to 60 percent of the country’s $8.5 billion budget, with the United States as the second-largest donor after China. Until very recently, only a tiny fraction of that funding has gone directly to the military. But development and humanitarian contributions allow the ruling party to direct the bulk of its discretionary, domestic revenues (money that would otherwise have to be spent on social services like schools and hospitals) to military spending. As a result, Ethiopia has the largest and most sophisticated security apparatus in sub-Saharan Africa, and it maintains one of the largest and best-trained militaries on the continent.

Even as Addis Ababa uses its security apparatus to intimidate its own population, it is pursuing American national security interests in the region. Ethiopia has repeatedly launched its military into Somalia, most recently contributing more than 4,000 troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission there, in addition to deploying peacekeepers to Darfur. Ethiopia’s prime minister has also been the primary host and broker of peace talks between the combatants in South Sudan. But Ethiopian “peacekeeping” efforts have not always been so peaceful: The country’s brutal invasion and occupation of Somalia from December 2006 to January 2009 triggered a violent local backlash that in turn propelled the al Qadea-linked al Shabaab to power in Mogadishu, and there were reports at the time of Ethiopian soldiers systemic raping Somali women, among a host of other human rights abuses.

Bronwyn Bruton is deputy director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council.